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By Kate Holton
LONDON, July 19 (Reuters) - Martin Sorrell's S4 Capital
has increased its firepower for acquisitions after the
advertising veteran saw the biggest jump in activity in his
45-year career, driven in part by companies converting their
operations to digital.
The British company, which has a market valuation of 3.6
billion pounds ($5 billion) less than three years after it
launched, said on Monday it had refinanced its debt to provide
around 200 million pounds for purposes including deals.
Sorrell said he was planning to expand into technology
services to better compete with the likes of Accenture and
Globant which can help clients develop IT and internal
operations and market them online for digital sales.
The expansion would enable S4 to win work from the chief
technology and information officers of clients, as well as the
chief marketing officer.
The willingness to expand comes as advertising groups
benefit from a rebound in global economic growth as
pandemic-linked restrictions ease, and as companies continue a
shift towards digitising their operations. As a digital-only
marketing group, S4 was in prime position, Sorrell said.
"Organically we're doing very well, it's beyond expectations
certainly through June, it's unprecedented from what I can see
in the 45 years that I've been at it," he told Reuters.
The world's most famous advertising executive spent most of
his career making acquisitions, first at Saatchi & Saatchi and
then as he built WPP into the world's biggest
advertising group.
His new firm already counts Google and Facebook as clients,
and S4 said on Monday its organic revenue and gross profit had
continued to grow at levels beyond expectations.
Shares in the company were down 2%, broadly in line with a
weaker FTSE.
($1 = 0.7261 pounds)
(Reporting by Kate Holton; editing by Sarah Young and
Bernadette Baum)